Current charging manners include: online charging and offline charging. Online charging is a currently most popular charging manner. In an online charging manner, credit authorization can be performed before a user uses a service, fee deduction can be performed in real time according to usage information of the user, and further, real-time control on credit can be achieved, thereby preventing the user from using a service beyond credit to cause loss to an operator, and improving user experience (accurate balance and use information can be queried in real time). In addition, by using a real-time capability of the online charging, granularity information of a user service layer can be obtained in real time, and further, refined control can be triggered on a service used by a user.
A main mechanism of the online charging is credit authorization, that is, before a service is used, a charging trigger apparatus (Charging Trigger Function, CTF for short) applies for a credit quota (quota) from an Online Charging System, OCS for short; the OCS performs credit quota authorization; and after the authorization, the CTF performs service control according to the credit quota authorized by the OCS. When the CTF applies for a credit quota, credit unit determination (Unit determination, UD for short) is required as a reference for the OCS to perform credit quota authorization. The Unit determination herein specifically refers to the number of credit units required for calculation. Credit units include a service unit, traffic, duration, an event, and the like.
There are two existing credit unit determination manners: a first one, Centralized Unit Determination, CUD for short, where an OCS determines the number of required credit units; and a second one, Decentralized Unit Determination, DUD for short, where a CTF determines the number of required credit units, and requests credit units of the number from an OCS.
However, in a process of implementing the online charging, the following problem may occur: Determining bodies of UD are different, causing a conflict between determined quota types. Specifically, a CTF and an OCS are provided by different vendors, and the CTF and the OCS both have a function of implementing quota type determination. However, the CTF implements quota type determination according to a service session request, and the OCS implements quota type determination according to information reported by the CTF and an operation mode of an operator. The determined quota types may conflict, and therefore a charging session is further affected, and a charging control error may occur.